Chapter 8 - EIGHTEEN MINUTES BEFORE THE COSTELLO EMPIRE COLLAPSEDEighteen minutes.
Luca stared at the countdown.
Marco dragged Dominic upright.
“What did you upload?”
Dominic laughed.
“History.”
“Forgery?”
“Some.”
“Which parts?”
“You’ll have to guess.”
Luca looked toward the mansion.
His private server room occupied the basement.
Air-gapped.
At least supposedly.
“How did you access my network?”
Rebecca smiled.
“You signed the upgrade.”
Luca looked at her.
Three years earlier.
Security modernization.
He remembered signing.
Barely.
Medication had been particularly strong then.
Luca’s stomach turned.
“Can we stop it?”
Marco asked.
Dominic said, “No.”
Luca ignored him.
“IT.”
Marco called.
No response.
Dominic smiled.
“They’re gone.”
“Dead?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
“Paid.”
Of course.
Luca looked at Salazar.
“You know systems?”
The doctor almost laughed.
“I’m sixty-three.”
“So no.”
Maya raised her hand.
Everyone stared.
“What?”
She pointed toward Tommy, who stood behind the outfield fence with his father.
Luca’s eyes widened.
“When did they get here?”
Maya shrugged.
“Before the shooting.”
“Why did nobody remove them?”
Marco looked embarrassed.
Maya continued.
“Tommy’s brother fixes computers.”
Luca stared.
“Wonderful. Our salvation is a teenager’s brother.”
Dominic laughed.
“What a legacy.”
Within four minutes, nineteen-year-old Jason Alvarez sat inside Luca’s server room.
He wore a pizza-shop hoodie.
His hands shook.
“You understand this system?” Luca asked.
“No.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Jason continued.
“But I understand the software.”
Better.
“Can you stop the upload?”
Jason typed.
“Maybe.”
Timer.
12:57.
He frowned.
“This isn’t uploading files.”
“What?”
“It’s releasing encryption keys.”
Luca looked at him.
“English.”
“The files are already everywhere. Hidden copies. This timer makes them readable.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Possibly.”
“Do it.”
Jason typed faster.
Timer.
10:41.
Maya sat beside Luca.
Elena objected.
Luca did too.
Maya refused both.
“She found the problem,” Luca said finally.
Elena glared.
“That does not make her cybersecurity staff.”
Maya whispered, “What’s cybersecurity?”
“Exactly.”
Jason found the release script.
“It needs a cancellation phrase.”
Luca looked at Dominic.
His uncle smiled.
“Not happening.”
Marco pushed him against the wall.
“Phrase.”
“No.”
Luca stared.
Threats would waste time.
He understood Dominic now.
Dominic wanted power more than survival.
So Luca offered the opposite.
“What if the archive releases?”
Dominic smiled.
“You go to prison.”
“Maybe.”
“Your companies collapse.”
“Maybe.”
“Everything Antonio built ends.”
Luca looked at him.
“That bothers you more than me.”
Dominic’s smile weakened.
Luca continued.
“You don’t want the Costello empire destroyed.”
“You think I care about sentiment?”
“No.”
“You’re right.”
“You care about ownership.”
Dominic said nothing.
Luca smiled faintly.
“If everything releases, your offshore companies become visible too.”
A flicker.
There.
Luca continued.
“Your money disappears.”
“No.”
“Your partners turn on you.”
Dominic stared.
“They’ll kill you before prosecutors find you.”
Timer.
8:04.
Luca leaned closer.
“Give me the phrase.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
Rebecca suddenly spoke.
“Gabriel.”
Everyone turned.
“What?”
“The cancellation phrase.”
Dominic’s face changed.
Rebecca smiled.
“Your brother’s name.”
Dominic lunged at her.
Marco restrained him.
Jason typed GABRIEL.
Denied.
“Not enough.”
Rebecca looked at Dominic.
“Full name.”
GABRIEL ANTONIO COSTELLO.
Denied.
Timer.
6:12.
Luca thought.
Gabriel’s grave.
His letter.
The sentence.
The only Costello left who might fix what we became.
He looked at the screen.
“Try FIX WHAT WE BECAME.”
Jason typed.
Denied.
Maya frowned.
“What did his brother call him?”
Luca looked at her.
“What?”
“In the video.”
The old recording.
Gabriel speaking directly.
Luca.
Brother.
No.
He remembered childhood.
Gabriel called him Lucky.
Only Gabriel.
Because Luca survived pneumonia at six.
Because he survived a boating accident at fourteen.
Because Gabriel said his little brother could fall into hell and somehow complain about the temperature on his way out.
“Lucky.”
Jason typed.
Denied.
Timer.
4:40.
Dominic laughed.
Luca stared at him.
“You know it.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca spoke.
“He loved Gabriel.”
Dominic turned.
“Shut up.”
She continued.
“More than he loved anyone.”
Dominic’s face twisted.
That was unexpected.
Luca studied him.
Gabriel and Dominic had once been close.
Before betrayal.
Before the investigation.
Maybe Dominic had not killed Gabriel easily.
“Gabriel’s nickname for you.”
Dominic looked away.
Luca remembered family dinners.
Gabriel teasing their uncle.
Calling him—
“Domino.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Jason typed DOMINO.
The timer stopped.
00:03:21.
Everyone exhaled.
Then the screen changed.
CANCELLATION REQUIRES BIOMETRIC CONFIRMATION.
Dominic smiled.
“Still need me.”
Luca looked at him.
“Finger.”
“No.”
Marco grabbed his hand.
Dominic fought.
Maya shouted.
“Don’t!”
Everyone stopped.
She pointed at the screen.
“There’s two hand pictures.”
Jason leaned closer.
She was right.
Two biometric confirmations.
Dominic.
And Luca.
Luca stared.
His own fingerprint.
“Why?”
Dominic looked at him.
“Antonio designed the failsafe.”
“Dad knew about the archive?”
“Part of it.”
“You said you built this.”
“I expanded it.”
Luca placed his thumb on the scanner.
FIRST AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED.
Dominic still refused.
Timer resumed.
2:47.
Luca looked at him.
“Do it.”
“No.”
“You die with me.”
Dominic smiled.
“I’m old.”
Luca glanced toward Maya.
Then at his uncle.
“What did Gabriel say before he died?”
Dominic’s face changed.
Luca had guessed correctly.
“You were there.”
“No.”
“You spoke to him.”
Dominic looked away.
“What did he say?”
Timer.
1:58.
“Tell me.”
Dominic’s eyes filled.
For the first time, Luca saw something human.
“He said I could still stop.”
Luca swallowed.
“And?”
“I told him it was too late.”
“Was it?”
Dominic stared at the timer.
1:31.
Luca extended the scanner.
“You have one minute to answer him.”
Dominic looked at Luca.
Then Maya.
Then Rebecca.
Then his own burned hands.
He placed his thumb on the scanner.
SECOND AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED.
RELEASE CANCELLED.
The room fell silent.
Dominic sagged.
Marco handcuffed him.
For the first time, he did not resist.
Luca looked at Jason.
“Copy everything.”
Jason nodded.
“Where?”
“Three places.”
“Which?”
“Federal authorities. Two newspapers.”
Dominic looked up sharply.
“You just stopped the release.”
“Yes.”
“Then you’ll release it anyway?”
“Not your version.”
Luca looked at the forged documents.
“We separate truth from lies.”
Rebecca laughed.
“That could take years.”
“Then it takes years.”
“You’ll destroy your name.”
Luca looked at her.
“Names recover.”
Then down at his legs.
“So do other things.”
By morning, federal agents arrived.
Dominic and Rebecca were arrested.
Marco had quietly contacted investigators after Gabriel’s drive confirmed crimes outside Luca’s organization.
Salazar surrendered his medical records.
Elena turned over her mother’s papers.
For forty-eight hours, Luca did not sleep.
Then the biggest surprise came.
A federal investigator requested to speak with him privately.
Agent Naomi Pierce placed a document on his desk.
“We have reason to believe Dominic was not the person who initiated your poisoning.”
Luca stared.
“What?”
“He continued it.”
“Yes.”
“But the first dose wasn’t ordered by him.”
Luca felt cold.
“Who?”
Pierce slid over a toxicology report.
The substance entered Luca’s body approximately ninety minutes before dinner.
Before he met Dominic.
Luca stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“Where were you ninety minutes earlier?”
He remembered.
Home.
His old townhouse.
Getting dressed.
Gabriel stopped by.
They drank coffee.
Luca’s breathing changed.
“No.”
Agent Pierce said nothing.
“Gabriel?”
“We don’t know.”
Luca stood too quickly.
He grabbed the desk.
“No.”
Pierce continued.
“There was one other person there.”
Luca remembered.
Sofia.
His fiancée.
The woman he planned to marry.
The woman who left six months after he became paralyzed because she said she could not live inside his grief.
He had not seen her in eleven years.
Agent Pierce placed a photograph on the desk.
Recent.
Sofia Bennett.
Older.
Still beautiful.
Standing outside a clinic in Switzerland.
Beside her was Dr. Nathaniel Ward.
Luca stared.
“Ward is dead.”
Pierce shook her head.
“Apparently not.”
Another fake death.
Another lie.
Pierce continued.
“We believe Sofia and Ward are connected.”
“To Dominic?”
“We don’t know.”
“Where is she now?”
Pierce hesitated.
“In the United States.”
Luca’s heart began pounding.
“Where?”
The agent looked toward the window.
“Close.”
Luca followed her gaze.
A black sedan had just entered the mansion gates.
A woman stepped out.
Dark hair.
Long gray coat.
Sofia.
Luca had imagined seeing her again thousands of times.
In none of those fantasies was he standing.
He walked toward the window.
Slow.
Painful.
Unaided.
Sofia looked up.
Saw him.
Her face collapsed.
She whispered something Luca could not hear through the glass.
But he knew the shape of the words.
May you like
Oh my God.
Then she began to cry.
